


The Sword and the Log

by AlternativeImaginativeBrand



Series: Awakening: Parent-Morgan Bonding Time [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: A Support Fun, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-11 14:51:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12937617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlternativeImaginativeBrand/pseuds/AlternativeImaginativeBrand
Summary: First of a 35-one-shot series about Morgan bonding with their family, mostly their non-Avatar parent and siblings. (Robin will show up too sometimes, though.) Stories will generally be self-contained, although references to other characters not part of the family may crop up now and again. Gonna be a long trip, but I'm committed to this course. Wish me luck.





	The Sword and the Log

**Author's Note:**

> God, I hope I live to regret this. Okay, let's do this thing.
> 
> \- Avatar: Female.  
> \- Other Parent: Chrom.  
> \- Sibling: Lucina.  
> \- Themes: Walking In on Bathing, Falchion, Death, Promises.  
> \- Summary: Morgan is worried about losing his sister. His father comforts him and helps him face his anxieties.

"And she was so mad the whole time - not that you could blame her - but also so understanding. I thought for sure I'd lost any chance of being with her, but somehow I've walked away with the promise of a blossoming courtship," giggled Morgan. "On the condition that my foot remains dislodged from my mouth for good, of course. That's non-negotiable." 

Chrom laughed at the conclusion of his son's story, a small chuckle that built into a hearty guffaw. "Oh, Morgan. If I'd seen that story with my own eyes, I'd scarcely believe it happened... and yet, enough stranger things have taken place that for all intents and purposes, I do." 

Morgan laughed along with him, finally taking a breath to calm himself. "Anyway, so that's the story of how I started courting Kjelle." He paused for a moment. "Do you think her mother will get angry with me for walking in on her naked?" 

"Well if she has a problem with it, she may as well get angry with me for giving you ideas." Chrom glanced around before continuing in a conspiratorial whisper, "Don't tell anyone, but the same thing happened to me before I married your mother. We both walked in on each other, so I guess in that regard you're only following our example." 

Morgan tried and failed to suppress a snigger. "Well, I guess that's reassuring. At least I won't be the only one getting yelled at." 

\-----

After a few more minutes of banter, Chrom decided to guide the discussion back to the original reason, whatever it was, that Morgan had sought him out. It must have been serious for him to want to chat out in the woods, where they could be guaranteed no one else could see or hear them without announcing their presence from a mile away. 

"So now that we've firmly broken the ice," he said as his tone turned more serious, "What did you want to talk about?" 

Morgan, realising what he had just been asked, suddenly became nervous and twitchy, his hands fidgeting as he tried to come up with a good cover. "Well, uh, I don't really remember, Father. But what I do remember is..." 

"No, Morgan, I think you do. And I think that now that we're about to actually talk about it, you've grown nervous because you think I won't like what you want to talk to me about." 

His shoulders sagging slightly in defeat, Morgan licked his lips as he began to respond. "It's about Falchion." 

Chrom raised an eyebrow. "My sword? What about it?" 

"Not your Falchion - uh, I mean..." 

"The one Lucina brought back with her?" Chrom asked. Morgan nodded in response. Well, at least he could work with that. "Okay, what did you want to discuss about your sister's copy of our ancestral weapon?" 

The boy scratched the back of his head. "Well, not that I can remember what happened back in the future - at all - but one day I got curious to see if I could wield it like she could, so I tried using it to cut an apple and..." He continued to fidget. "Well, she didn't like that at all, said I was disrespecting you and your memory by doing so." 

"That's... a bit of an exaggeration, I guess," Chrom said, still not convinced Morgan was telling him everything. He leaned on a nearby tree. "But why did you want to come all the way out here to talk about that, son? Surely there's more to it than that." 

"...There is," admitted Morgan with a sigh. "After she got over her initial anger with me, she began to consider the possibility of me actually using Falchion, and I was excited. But then she had to go and... and ruin it." The boy began to sniffle. 

"'Ruin it'? How?" Now Chrom was really starting to worry. He pulled his son's face up to face him. "Morgan, what's wrong?" 

Morgan looked up at his father helplessly, his expression vacillating between fear and sadness, tears forming in his light-green eyes and his lips beginning to wobble. "She-she talked about how it would be an-an asset to the Shepherds to have someone else who... who could use Falchion if she ever died. And-and after she said that, all I could think about was that she wanted me to... to practise for her death!" He swallowed a shaky sob. "I never wanted that! All I wanted was- was to see if I could use that stupid sword! But not if it gets her killed!" 

He covered his face with his hands and began to cry openly. Chrom closed his eyes and sighed; they hadn't been with him for as long as the rest of his companions, but he hated seeing his future children in distress like this. He pulled Morgan against his legs and allowed him to give voice to his sorrows for a few moments while softly stroking his short blue hair, a neater arrangement than Chrom's own. 

After Morgan began to slow his crying down to soft sobbing, Chrom pulled his son's hands away from his face and smiled consolingly. "The way you carry yourself like a big man, sometimes I forget you're a young boy at heart as well," he admitted as he rubbed away his tears. Morgan smiled up at him sadly with a hint of embarrassment. They shared an awkward laugh, before the would-be exalt went down on a knee to meet his prince's eye level. "Morgan, I know the fear of losing your sister all too well. Not the least because it actually happened to me." 

"You mean Auntie Emmeryn?" Morgan asked. His mother had brought him up to speed on the nature of the war they were fighting after their first meeting, yet his exact knowledge of it all remained loose without memories to put the information he was receiving in context. He flinched slightly seeing the pain in his father's eyes at the mention of her name. 

"Yes, exactly," Chrom mumbled. "But I also know that she didn't want to die on my account, or anyone else's, and sacrificed herself only because she believed it was the only way. For all Lucina's talk of wanting someone to take up Falchion after she dies, I'm certain she is just as determined to survive and see her mission through to the end as you are. So, this is what we're going to do." His jaw set determinedly. "You and I are going to talk about this with your sister, we shall see if you have the ability to wield Falchion or not, and regardless of whether you can, no one is going to come any closer to losing their family. Alright?" 

"I... Yeah, okay." Morgan moved to embrace his father, who pulled him into a comforting hug. "Thanks, Dad." 

"It's the least I can do," Chrom smiled as he patted his son's back. "Now, let's get back to camp. I'm sure I know where Lucina will be, and the others will probably worry if we stay out here much longer." 

And with that, they pulled apart gingerly and started the trek back. 

\-----

Lucina was polishing her version of Falchion when Chrom and Morgan approached her. “Oh, Father! Little Brother!” she smiled when she noticed them. “It’s good to see you, but... what’s the occasion?” 

Seeing his son's hesitation, Chrom gently nudged him forward. There was no sense dragging this out. “Tell her, Morgan.” 

Morgan looked back nervously, but by now he had accepted that he would have to deal with his concerns sooner or later, so it was no use putting it off. "Well, Lucina, I... I want to talk about me being able to use Falchion." 

Lucina looked a bit surprised at his matter-of-fact statement. "Truly? But when last we spoke, you claimed you had no further interest in using Falchion for any purpose except to slice apples." 

"I know what I said," the boy nodded. "But things are different now. Father and I talked it through on the way over, and I've decided to give it another try, if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity." He laughed sheepishly. "Plus, it's a magnificent weapon that could well be my birthright to wield. Surely there's a better use for such a weapon than to cut fruit, right?" 

They all shared a laugh at that, the initial tension of the situation broken up by a momentary levity. Lucina gave her brother an understanding nod. "Alright, Morgan, we'll see to it. Just give me a few minutes to set everything up." 

\-----

A few minutes later, Lucina had fetched a log from the nearby woods and her father had helped her carry it to camp. Morgan was standing nearby, the mighty sword clenched tightly in his trembling hands. He still had reservations about doing this, afraid he wouldn't like the answer, but Mother had always said the only way to truly be rid of one's fears was to face them head-on. How strange that that advice only now seemed to have any precedent. 

"The log in front of you will serve as a perfect dummy," Lucina explained as she and Chrom wiped their hands of bark and moss. "Swing at it with Falchion. If you are, indeed, worthy to wield it, you will slice through it with ease. If you are not, you will completely miss it. It's that simple." She walked over and squeezed her brother's shoulder. "Before we begin, however, I want you to remember you will still be my brother, son of Chrom and a prince of Ylisse regardless of what the exalted blade proclaims about you. Whatever happens, remember that." 

Morgan smiled up at her sadly and squeezed her hand back. Lucina moved away a safe distance and he walked up to the log, Falchion trembling in his vice-like grip. This was it, the thousand gold moment of truth, he thought. Now, for good or for ill, he would have his answer to the question that had long racked his mind. The boy raised the sword above his head, his brow furrowing with concentration. If he had looked behind him in that moment, he would have seen his father watching him with an expression of determination and trepidation, his sister with one of hope and concern. Instead, he focused on building up his discipline to make the swing and make it count, not a full ten seconds passing before he swung the sword down upon the hapless log, his hands guided by a mix of adrenaline and moxie... 

\-----

Chrom looked down at the log with an expression of shock and awe. The same log lay there before him, the parallel Falchion lying discarded beside it and Morgan off to the side, face buried in his big sister's shoulder as he softly sobbed and sighed. 

He'd done it. His boy had really, truly done it. A clean slice, right down the middle of the log. After he'd made it, there had been a stunned silence between the three of them, as if none of them could believe it had truly happened. That was before Morgan had gotten over the shock, absent-mindedly dropped the sword he could now wield on equal terms with Lucina - so it seemed - and rushed over to her for a hug as he slowly processed the knowledge that he and she were now on equal footing and that the question he had long sought an answer to was finally answered. 

But Morgan was not crying out of sadness, but merely a lack of a better way to express his conflicting feelings of relief and anxiety. The truth was good to know, but he still needed to know whether or not his sister was going to be more reckless with her life knowing that Falchion could well be in good hands if she died. 

As Morgan's tears began to wind down, Lucina kept her arms wrapped around her shaking brother while their father approached, having processed what had happened and retrieved the carelessly-abandoned sword from the long grass. "So... are you feeling better, Morgan?" She asked as he gradually pulled away from her now soaked cape. "I know this must be strange and unfamiliar for you, but it doesn't have to change anything unless you want it to." 

"What about you, Luci?" Morgan asked shakily as they pulled apart. “It’s nice to know I can use Falchion, but that won't mean anything to me if I gain the sword, only to lose my big sister in the process. Does..." He sighed; there was no easy way to ask this question. "Does knowing I can use it mean you're going to start taking more risks, acting up because you think you're expendable?" 

"W-What?!" Upon hearing him Lucina was left aghast. "How can you even ask me that?! I wouldn't **dream** of throw my life away so callously!" Yet she hadn't the heart to maintain her outrage when it dawned on her what he was getting at. "Morgan, I have no intention of dying anytime soon. At the very least, I want to live long enough to see peace come back to this realm, and even beyond that..." She planted her hands on his shoulders, gripping tightly. "We all die someday, little brother, but you will not lose me to a Risen's bite or a Grimleal's blade." 

"You promise?" His voice was cautiously optimistic. 

"I promise," Lucina affirmed, pulling her brother into another hug, her long blue hair brushing against his cheek. 

"I'm sure he's going to hold you to that, you know." Chrom smiled as he approached his children and helped them to their feet. "And so will I. No making your little brother cry, okay?" 

Lucina giggled lightly. "Okay, Father." She took Falchion from his grasp. 

"And as for you," Morgan chuckled as he wiped some errant tears and snot on his long, long sleeve, pointing his other hand at the sword. "You take care of my big sister, you hunk of deadly metal. If you don't, I'm demoting you to _Royal Fruitcutter_ , and you'll be lucky to smite a single foe again." 

At this they all threw their heads back and laughed for a solid minute, the sheer ridiculousness of what they had just been doing finally dawning on them. "You and your fruit, Morgan," Lucina smirked fondly. "I believe it has a long path of smiting foes ahead of it." 

"So do we all, Lucina," Chrom said with satisfaction as he pulled his children into a hug. "So do we all." 

**Author's Note:**

> As someone who struggles with meeting self-made commitments and overcoming problems that can seem much bigger and more insurmountable than they actually are, this story resonated greatly with me for personal reasons. Remember, folks: sometimes, a little conviction can carry you long distances.


End file.
